Keywords
Citation
(2002), "Sound-sourcing robot", Industrial Robot, Vol. 29 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2002.04929cab.007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited
Sound-sourcing robot
Sound-sourcing robot
Keywords: Robots, Navigation, Sound
A humanoid robot that can determine the source of a sound is being developed by a research group working on the Symbiotic Systems Project at Japan's Science and Technology Corporation. The robot, which is being called SIG, has a human-like upper body, uses CCD cameras for eyes and microphones for ears.
To capture external sound precisely, the robot must distinguish between noise that it itself generates and sounds from other sources, and to achieve this, the team positioned microphones inside and outside the head, thereby enabling SIG to recognise external sounds by subtracting sonic data received by the inner microphone from data received by the outer microphone; and by having this process available in both "ears", the robot is able to determine the direction from which sound originates.
In trials, SIG has been exposed to two sources emitting sounds of 500Hz and 600Hz at a distance of 2m, and thus far it has achieved a margin of error of plus/minus ten degrees; the human equivalent is about plus/minus eight degrees.
Existing robots can only recognise the source of sound in a quiet environment. The S&T Corporation team is now aiming to enhance SIG to enable it to hear in ordinary environments with background noise.